Université Laval, Québec City, Canada.
Br J Educ Psychol. 2010 Dec;80(Pt 4):711-35. doi: 10.1348/000709910X499084. Epub 2010 May 5.
There are two approaches to the differential examination of school motivation. The first is to examine motivation towards specific school subjects (between school subject differentiation). The second is to examine school motivation as a multidimensional concept that varies in terms of not only intensity but also quality (within school subject differentiation). These two differential approaches have led to important discoveries and provided a better understanding of student motivational dynamics. However, little research has combined these two approaches.
This study examines young elementary students' motivations across school subjects (writing, reading, and maths) from the stance of self-determination theory. First, we tested whether children self-report different levels of intrinsic, identified, and controlled motivation towards specific school subjects. Second, we verified whether children self-report differentiated types of motivation across school subjects.
Participants were 425 French-Canadian children (225 girls, 200 boys) from three elementary schools. Children were in Grades 1 (N=121), 2 (N=126), and 3 (N=178).
Results show that, for a given school subject, young elementary students self-report different levels of intrinsic, identified, and controlled motivation. Results also indicate that children self-report different levels of motivation types across school subjects. Our findings also show that most differentiation effects increase across grades. Some gender effects were also observed.
These results highlight the importance of distinguishing among types of school motivation towards specific school subjects in the early elementary years.
学校动机的差异检验有两种方法。第一种是检查特定学校科目的动机（学科间差异）。第二种是将学校动机视为一个多维概念，不仅在强度上，而且在质量上（学科内差异）。这两种差异方法已经取得了重要的发现，并提供了对学生动机动态的更好理解。然而，很少有研究将这两种方法结合起来。
本研究从自我决定理论的角度考察了小学生在学校科目（写作、阅读和数学）方面的动机。首先，我们测试了儿童是否对特定学校科目报告了不同程度的内在动机、认同动机和控制动机。其次，我们验证了儿童是否在学校科目之间报告了不同类型的动机。
参与者为来自三所小学的 425 名法裔加拿大儿童（225 名女孩，200 名男孩）。儿童分别在一年级（N=121）、二年级（N=126）和三年级（N=178）。
结果表明，对于给定的学校科目，小学生对内在动机、认同动机和控制动机的报告水平不同。结果还表明，儿童在学校科目之间报告了不同水平的动机类型。我们的研究结果还表明，大多数分化效应随着年级的增加而增加。还观察到一些性别效应。
这些结果强调了在小学早期区分特定学校科目学校动机类型的重要性。
